The biggest problem product developers have when they launch a new product lies in getting traffic to their sales pages. Sure, you can get as much traffic as you want if you’re willing to pay for it. But most beginners don’t have the pocketbooks to run PPC programs 24/7 with no guarantee they’ll show a return on their investment.
I will say that prior to launching a product it’s generally a good idea to run some PPC campaigns to test various versions of a sales page to see which version delivers the highest earnings per click, but when the moment of truth comes, it’s always best to have a cadre of high-octane affiliates promoting your product to their list.
The problem is, that if it is your first product and if you don’t already have relationships with big affiliates in your niche, it can be tough to bring them on board.
On a good note, it doesn’t take thousands or even hundreds of affiliates to generate a fairly substantial product launch. Even a handful of relatively big affiliates can swamp you with orders if they hit their list with links to your offer. Still, if they don’t know you, it is pretty unlikely many big dogs will promote for you.
When you send an email to a big affiliate asking them to please promote for you, the first thing that comes to mind with them is, “Why should I and who the heck is this guy?”
There are dozens of big product launches each and every day. Many of the developers of those products already have promoted for each other in the past. Call it an inner circle if you wish, but one hand does wash the other in this business.
If you have friends who have promoted for you in the past, you will be very likely to promote for them when they launch a product. It’s just a fact of life.
The key here, then, is to establish relationships with key players in your niche far before the time you ask them to promote for you. The vast majority of beginners fail to do this. That is why they struggle with their launch.
So how can you do this? How can you make yourself known to the key players in your niche?
Do something for them as a means of a calling card. Provide them with a product or service at no cost. It’s the reciprocity thing. One of the biggest things you can do is to prove to them that you have promoted their products in the past!
Suppose that one of your target players has a new product coming out. Get yourself a domain name related to their product and toss up a preview page for it. Dump some content into it and when available, put in some affiliate links to their sales page. Down the road, if you can point to the fact that you have made some sales for your key players, even if it was just a few–it is much more likely they will promote for you one day.
But there are tons of other things you can do. If you have good writing skills provide, them with some high caliber blog posts they could use on their own blogs. Make sure they are not spun posts from other sources. They should be 100% original and they should be great ones. They will love you for it.
Consider writing half a dozen articles for them that they could submit to directories. Give them to them for free, but you could tell them that you are willing to write as many articles for them as they wish for a very low cost. If they take you up on the offer, well–now you’re in their circle of friends. They know you. It makes it much more likely they will promote for you one day.
If you have graphic design skills, offer to design a couple of product images for them for free! Again, you could offer to do future work for them way below prevailing prices just to “get in” with them. If you are some kind of social media consultant there are all kinds of things you could do to help them spread their brand in the social media platforms.
If you are a copywriter you could offer to tweak up some of the copy on their sales pages or blogs at no cost.
My point is that if you are going to ask these guys to promote for you down the road, it’s a good idea to make yourself known to them well ahead of that time.
This business is all about networking and leveraging the assets of others to your advantage. To do that you must get out there and mix it up with some of the key players. Let them know who you are and what you can do for them.
Lone rangers don’t tend to be very successful in the online marketing business. Get out there and get known!